Imagine
by Tenkasen
Summary: Children have the greatest ability of imagination when they are young. It's eventually lost as they grow older, and grow up... Sooner or later, they have to let go.


**Title:** Imagine  
**Rating:** K+  
**Summary:** Children have the greatest ability of imagination when they are young. It's eventually lost as they grow older, and grow up... Sooner or later, they have to let go.  
**A/N:** I was looking up quotes the other day and stumbled upon one that was from the movie, _The Curse of the Cat People_. I have never seen the movie, and the only reason I paid attention to the quote was because it was rather odd sounding, and that it mentioned the name 'Amy', which usually reminds of Amy Rose, and thusly started this one-shot idea. I kind of like how this turned out, though perhaps a bit cheesier/more cliche than I intended.  
**Notes:** AU-ish. Sonic, and probably Amy, will appear out of character. This is done for a reason. If things don't make sense in the beginning or in certain spots, then it should make sense by the end of it.  
**One-shot.**

* * *

_Do you know why I came to you, Amy? Why I came to be your friend? Because you called to me..._

* * *

Amy swings her legs back forth, watching the other girls and boys of her class playing with each other from her favorite spot on the swing set. The other kids are screaming and laughing, having fun and not thinking about anything more than what they were doing right now. The past was nothing, the future something they didn't have to deal with now. Time was nothing for them.

Time was suffocating for Amy. She had sat there since recess began, and would continue until it ended. None of her classmates liked to approach her. The never did. They always kept their distance, occasionally glancing at her, miles away in their land of happiness and let their grins fade slightly and look away. They didn't like her. Amy wishes they did.

For them, their fun made time fly at blazing speeds. For her, she sat through every slow minute, every second, and wished time would stop being so slow. They complain when their fun time is over and class must restart, for they say it wasn't enough time. For her, she looks forward to the end of recess and beginning of class, because at least when she's busy, time doesn't drag on.

Amy wants to know how they did it. How they could make a half-an-hour feel like five minutes. How they could have so make fun _together_, and never feel it to be enough.

Why was time fast for them, and slow for her?

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a blue hedgehog twitch his ears and turn to look at her.

"Do you want to play with them?" He asks, sitting on the seat beside her, like he always was, the wind gently lifting his blue quills as he swings back and forth in tandem with her.

"No." Amy replies, not taking her eyes off the children in the distance. "I'm fine. I don't need them."

* * *

He's faster than the wind, and that's what she likes so much about him. His super-sonic speed. His carefree attitude. The way he made everything fun. Everything she wants in a friend. Everything she needs in a friend.

He grins at her, and Amy just smiles back and runs after him. He jumps over the monkey bars, slides under fences, and runs up the slides, all the while shouting at her to catch up. Amy can't do everything he can, but she tries and she eventually catches up.

"Sonic, don't leave me behind!" She laughs out, and he complies, stopping a little ways ahead of her, grinning like an idiot.

"You know I never will, Amy." Sonic tells her, his green eyes bright and happy. He winks in a playful way, like the way she saw a boy and girl do together once. They had seemed close, and they even held hands. For Amy, that meant it probably meant something important. She would do it with Sonic if she could, but there were a few problems with that idea…

He then takes off again, running _backwards_ at high speeds, taunting her in a friendly way and Amy knew it.

She just follows him, running around an empty park with her sights set on no one else but him.

* * *

Her parents are yelling at her, and Amy is having a hard enough time trying to keep the tears from forming in her eyes without having to deal with furious parents and horrible report cards. The day didn't start out good, and destiny would have it that after getting teased and bullied at school, she'd suffer the wrath of her family when she returned home.

She can't stand this.

She runs from the house. She pretends she manages it at speeds that surpass sound, just like Sonic, rushing past buildings and street signs with nothing but the wind keeping up with her. It doesn't take her long to find herself in the park. She'll have hell to pay when she gets back, but she doesn't realize that nor even entertain the notion of returning, when she sees _him_. Sonic is waiting for her by the swing set.

She doesn't have to explain. He knows. He always does. Always will.

She sits herself on the swing next to his, and furiously swipes at her eyes. She doesn't say anything.

"Who cares about _them_ anyway?" He scoffs, kicking at the dust with his shiny red and white shoes. "Parents don't understand. The teachers at school are boring and the other kids jerks and they don't get it either. You don't need 'em."

Amy sniffles a bit.

"You have me," Sonic promises. "You'll always have me."

* * *

Amy is trying to make a cake. Currently, the process wasn't working too well, but she is determined. A trait that goes hand in hand with stubbornness. She will not give up until she has something edible that can be coated in pink and blue frosting.

Her father looks over from his newspaper and asks what she's doing, eyeing the bowl of batter and the causalities of baking that are stained table cloths and splattered cake mix on the floor.

"I'm making a cake."

"I see that. For what occasion?"

"Sonic's birthday."

Her father frowns a bit, and looks back to his paper.

* * *

It's the first day of middle school, and Amy is nervous. Sonic assures her everything will be fine, since he'll be with her all the time, but it only does so much to abate the worry that torments her. She has to go to a new school, meet new teachers, and still deal with the horrible kids that made fun of her before. She didn't like her elementary school before, but when faced with the prospect of attending another one before the infamous _high school_, she'd rather go back to fifth grade.

Still, her parents aren't willing to let her drop out and they make her go.

She miraculously finds her way to her 'home room' on time and chooses a seat the farthest from the door and most other desks, save one. Dealing with those other kids aren't high on her priority list, so the less seats nearby equals the less chance she has of getting someone horrible next to her. She and Sonic are looking over her new schedule, trying to figure out which classroom she's supposed to get to next, when a voice interrupts them.

A female rabbit with light yellow fur and warm amber eyes. She appears even younger than Amy and for a moment Amy wonders if she was in the right class – this was Mr. Kinitobor's room for _sixth_ graders, wasn't it? – when the rabbit sticks out her hand and starts talking.

"Hi, my name's Cream!" Her voice drips so much sweetness that one could get just get cavities from just listening to it. There is so much _genuine_ seeming care and kindness that Amy is flabbergasted for a moment. "Who are you?"

"A-Amy. Amy Rose." She replies, a bit warily none the less. She hasn't forgotten the time one of the girls in her class, Rouge the Bat, pretended to be so kind and nice to her, only to trick her and humiliate her in front of the school during lunch. The memory still stung. And the fact that this _Cream _girl suddenly, randomly, introduced herself to her seemed rather odd.

Cream takes the seat next to her, and starts chattering happily about how nice the school seems and how the teachers she's met are just as nice as her old ones. It doesn't appear that the rabbit had so much as a mean bone in her body – there was not a single thing that came out of her mouth that wasn't positive. She also says things that seems a little to intimate and close for someone she had only met a few moments ago – like where she lived before, her favorite things, and _even things about her home and family._ Amy knows that kind of talk – it's the kind friends tell other friends. She often heard them, naturally from afar and accidentally eavesdropping, but never to said directly to her.

Yet there Cream was, rambling on personal information and asking about Amy herself, her tastes and acts like she really does care.

Amy likes that. She slowly begins talking a bit more, actually interested in getting to know this new face a bit. She must have been from one of the other school districts, or maybe she moved recently. Either way, Amy wouldn't have to deal with her reputation of being the lonely hedgehog girl with a bossy attitude dragging her down, ruining her chance at a good first impression.

Cream begins comparing her schedule with Amy's, and they're both surprised to find they have the majority of classes together.

"This is great!" Cream exclaims. The bells rings loudly, and the students scramble out of the seats and out the door, the school equivalent to a city's rush hour. It's a hassle weaving through hallways with so many people go in all different directions, but Cream sticks close and they manage to avoid losing each other in the crowd.

"I'm so glad to have made a friend on my first day here." Cream gushes cheerfully. "I was so worried about being alone and…"

_Friend_…

Sonic walks behind them, a bittersweet smile on his face as watches and eventually falls behind. He's put so far back in Amy's mind that she doesn't think about him for the rest of the day, awash in the glowing feeling of a new friendship.

* * *

"Cream seems nice," Sonic remarks, sitting high up on the tree branch that's much too thin for someone to actually put their weight on. Amy doesn't know this, because she doesn't know about mass or weight or laws of gravity and physics. Sonic doesn't know either. He wouldn't care, though. Sonic can do anything, and as far as they both are concerned, that includes defying the impossible.

"She is." Amy tells him, sitting at the base of the tree. She can't climb very well, and she's wearing her favorite red boots too, so she'd rather avoid getting them dirty by trying to clamber up some old tree. "She… I think she really means it, too. Cream is kind of like a little kid. I like her."

"Yeah." Sonic dangles one leg off the branch, kicking at the air. "She doesn't judge people too much. She's accepting. Do you think we'd get along?"

"Of course you would," Amy says, distracted. She's watching Cream wave bye to her and meet up with an older rabbit with a hug ready and smile in place. It must be her mother; the resemblance is obvious. They stroll to a car, talking and looking happier than Amy has ever been with her parents, and leave the school parking lot.

Amy checks her watch and waits patiently for the bus that would take her home.

* * *

The next time Amy sees Sonic, he's at the park, alone in the dark, sitting on the swing set. At the wrong side. She's a bit confused as to why she saw that in the first place. He always sits on the left swing, and she would always take the right. The sudden switch is a sign of _something_, but Amy doesn't dwell on it's possible meanings as she approaches.

"Hi." He says when Amy takes what would normally be his seat. He looks cheerful, but it's an oddly thin mask and his voice is a bit hollow. "Long time no see."

"Hey," She responds.

It's been a while since she last saw him. After school sports, hanging out with Cream, and homework have made it hard for her to fit time in to be with Sonic. It's been weeks since she last had spent any proper time with him, and long term loneliness doesn't seem to mix too well with the blue hedgehog. Still, it's not in his nature to angst or focus on the past much. He cheers her up. Not the other way around.

"I've started to like middle school." She declares. It's true. The teachers seem a lot nicer and she's not bullied anymore – mostly due to lack of interest since she's matured a little and stopped reacting, but also because some of them are growing up too. "I'm not alone as much, either."

Sonic nods, fading into the background as Amy loses herself in her thoughts of tomorrow, letting go of the here and now. She thinks of the red echidna who's always alone by choice, the nice purple cat in her math class who comes from a rich family, and finishing her science project with Cream. Her new life busier than her old one. It doesn't bother her like she thought it would, either.

Amy starts looking more to the future.

The past is becoming nothing more than something that once happened, a lesson to learn from, but no longer do the wounds of the past feel fresh, and they now show the beginning of healing.

"I know."

* * *

Big kids have real friends. So do teenagers. And adults.

Amy learned that a long time ago.

But she couldn't just _let go_ so easily.

* * *

Tomorrow is the last day of school.

It's a particularly important day for Amy, because not only is she finishing the year with good grades and some time off to look forward to, but it's her final year. Graduation ceremony is the day after, and she's looking forward to it with a heavy heart. She's chosen her college and has made plans to leave after a few weeks, but she's a little sad at leaving her home town. So many memories lie within this tiny little town, both good and bad; the time she made her first ever friend, the moment where she summoned the courage to tell Mr. Eggman _exactly_ what she thought of him, the first time she beat Espio in a race, the time when she befriended the shy Silver, the funny time where she and Tails threw Shadow a surprise birthday party, and the event where she had a shouting match with Knuckles in the middle of class and ended up in detention for it.

The nostalgia factor is almost overwhelming. But she knows she'll adjust and grow to love her new life too.

She won't forget the past.

But first, she must say farewell to it.

* * *

She returns to the park.

It hasn't aged well. By now, the shiny gleam and sleek looks it held when she was young had disappeared and now the playground looked worn and weary.

She takes the instinctive path to the swings, and briefly wonders if it's still strong enough to support her. But when the leather seat gives nothing but a soft creak and nothing else, she assumes it still is capable.

She doesn't know why she's doing this, except that since she holds a strong sense of sentimentality, and he played a large part in giving her hope during her childhood, she feels like he deserves it. It may be silly, but that doesn't dissuade her sense of right and wrong, even with what is real and what is not. She owes him that much.

"It's been awhile." Sonic remarks loftily, staring at the descending sun. Sunset dyes the quiet little town a blended mixture of red, pink, and orange. Before, Sonic's blue would have clashed horribly with it, as would have been bright as it always was, perfectly free from the touch of light or darkness. Amy's taken art classes since entering high school, though, and can envision the shading on his fur… how beautiful it would have looked, dashes of warm colors on his cool fur...

"It has," Amy admits softly.

Words don't mean too much when you're speaking to someone who knows your every thought, your every feeling. Sonic was never made a genius, just made to be a fast and long term friend, but he knows what's coming. She thinks of what he'd act like now, since it'd been years since she's so much as given him a passing thought, and wonders if he's always been the same or matured along with her. Her brain is his, in a sense, so it was probably the latter.

"I hope your new home is nice."

She can't think of him being anything but sad right now, because _she's_ sad right now, and he was usually synonymous with her emotions. But he would hide it.

"I wish you could have been real." It's all she can say, and it feels like too little, too late. It never bothered her much as a child. But when even imagination finds it limit, when the transition from childhood to adulthood already takes as much of that power as it can, it proves crippling.

"So do I."

The sun dips into the horizon. Darkness is slowly covering the land, with only a little ray of light still there in the far away distance. The last ray of hope. The final hour of sunshine.

"Y…You'll go somewhere better." She promises. Empty promise, hollow words to make herself feel better. She tries to convince herself she's being ridiculous, really, but her heart calls that a betrayal. She'll be a real adult when she sets out to join the rest of the world. This is her last chance to dwell in the past, only for a moment. One moment.

The very last.

"You don't think so." He points out. "Imagination only gets you so far. You know that. Imagination is powerful, but it's not real, either."

"Somewhere, you're real."

"It's not in this world. And it's not the same."

She turns to look at him, and imagines him looking happy and well, to make herself feel better about leaving him behind. It fits his character, but not the nature of the conversation. So she puts a sad, understanding smile on his face and lets her childhood friend and hero fade slowly, a see through creature with brilliant green eyes that watch her for the last few seconds of his existence.

"It's been fun, Amy." Sonic says, the smile evolving into his trademark grin, like he's been waiting for her to catch up to him all this time and finish their last race together. "I hope everything works out for you in the future. Live in the present, but don't forget about the past, alright?"

"Of course..." Amy Rose replies so softly she can barely even hear herself, watching the sun drop below the horizon line, taking with it the light and the past.

* * *

_"Goodbye, Sonic…"_

* * *

…_Out of your loneliness you called me and brought me into being. And I came, so that your childhood could be bright and full of friendliness. Now you must send me away... You'll remember me for a while, mourn a little, but then you'll forget. And that is as it should be. _

_- "Irena" to Amy (Dewitt Bodeen)_


End file.
